Life Lessons

ANNALS OF BROADCASTING about how telenovela soap operas are changing the world. One afternoon, in a conference room in San Miguel de Allende, in central Mexico, a dozen social workers were arguing about what should happen to Rocio, the 16-year-old heroine of a radio soap-opera script they were writing. Rocio's mother, Apolonia, had come home from her job as a maid to find her nephew, Javier, sexually assaulting Rocio; she chased him away, but didn't take Rocio to the police station for months. “How about having Apolonia kill the nephew?” Marla Salcedo, a social worker with Fronteras Unidas Pro Salud, a health clinic in Tijuana said. Rocio had been modeled on a girl Salcedo knew; most of the others in the room also worked at women's health agencies, and had all encountered women in similar situations. The telenovela workshop was organized by Population Communications International (P.C.I.), a New York-based group that, for the past 20 years, has pioneered the use of soap operas as a weapon against poverty. The social workers were to perform their scripts, which, if successful, would be produced and broadcast to as many as a million listeners. The first “soap operas for social change” were developed by Miguel Sabido, a Mexican TV producer, in the late 1970s. Dramas produced according to the “Sabido method” have aired in 100 countries. Some are large-scale TV productions that are funded by U.S. AID or the U.N., and some are $75 radio serials made by a local N.G.O. In 1992, researchers found that there were significant differences in condom use after an AIDS-related soap opera was produced in Tanzania. Other studies have had similar results. In a Sabido soap, the trick is to get a health message across while still producing a show that entertains. Mentions psychologist Albert Bandura, who found that the best way to teach new behavior is to give people models they can bond with. In a Sabido soap opera, there's always a fallible character with whom the audience identifies. The assumption is that viewers can gain more control over their lives if they're shown how to go about it. Sabido grew up within a circle of post-revolutionary Mexican artists and intellectuals. He began writing telenovelas in the early 1960s, and, in 1974, he started incorporating socially responsible themes in them. Within weeks of the airing of a literacy plotline in “Ven Conmigo,” nearly a million new students in Mexico had signed up for literacy classes. Another telenovela, “Accompaname,” focused on family planning and soon contraceptive sales in Mexico increased 23%. In 1983, Sabido created a telenovela, “Hum Log,” for Indian TV. A 1996 study of an Indian radio soap opera, “Tinka Tinka Sukh,” showed that the serial helped change the attitudes of Lutsaan villagers toward dowries and female education. Telenovelas often air topics that governments would rather avoid. Describes how, in 2000, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs sponsored a soap opera in Nepal called “Asal Logne.” Mentions Diane Summers. The most widely viewed program in the world is not a telenovela but “The Bold and the Beautiful,” a CBS soap opera. In 2001, in a major twist, Tony, a young designer, told Kristen, his girlfriend, that he was H.I.V.-positive. A study in Botswana found that the show had a significant effect on people's attitudes towards AIDS. The effort to get this kind of story line on “The Bold and the Beautiful” and on other American soaps was spearheaded by Sonny Fox, who became chairman of the board at P.C.I. in 1992. In 1993, Fox began organizing what he called annual “soap summits,” inviting producers, head writers, and network executives to hear from cabinet members and other government officials. Fox is now thinking beyond poverty reduction, to broader social and cultural issues, including anti-Americanism. Mentions Karen Hughes.

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